The present invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Guzmania, botanically known as Guzmania conifera and hereinafter referred to by the name ‘Bel-Air’.
The new Guzmania is a product of a planned breeding program conducted by the Inventor in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The objective of the breeding program is to create new Guzmania varieties having unique flower colors and enhanced postproduction longevity.
The new Guzmania originated from a cross-pollination made by the Inventor in January, 1999, in Sao Paulo, Brazil, of a proprietary section of Guzmania conifera identified as code number L#32, not patented, as the female, or seed, parent with a proprietary selection of Guzmania conifera identified as code number B#4, not patented, as the male, or pollen, parent. The new Guzmania was discovered and selected by the Inventor as a flowering plant within the progeny of the stated cross-pollination in a controlled environment in Sao Paulo, Brazil, in September, 2003.
Asexual reproduction of the new Guzmania by tissue culture in a controlled environment in Homestead, Fla., has shown that the unique features of this new Guzmania are stable and reproduced true to type in successive generations.